Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering Poster Session

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nihad Dukhan, University of Detroit, Mercy; Mark Schumack, University of Detroit, Mercy

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

probe the ability of students to a)explain the societal context of engineering, b) explain the importance of pro-active communityservice, and demonstrate an inclination to continue such service in the future, c) exhibit anappreciation of communication with non-engineers and finally, d) challenge some of thestudents’ stereotypes regarding others. The service-learning project was executed incollaboration with a local not-for-profit organization. Reflections were conducted by thestudents by answering a set of carefully-phrased questions after conducting the project. Analysisof students’ responses as well as the implications of the trends obtained, are explained in thispaper. The recorded benefits of service learning are described and can be

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ashland Brown, University of the Pacific; Kris Wood, University of Texas; Kristen Kaufman, Grad Student Universiy ot Texas; Daniel Jensen, United States Air Force Academy; Joseph Rencis, University of Arkansas; Christina White, Columbia University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

analysis for “Concrete Experience” on Kolb’scycle. Figure 1. Kolb learning cycle.Learning StylesEach FE learning module developed in this work is designed to span a spectrum of differentcharacteristics in which students learn. Felder-Soloman Index of Learning Styles50 is composedof four dimensions: active/reflective, sensing/intuitive, visual/verbal, and sequential/global[Table 1]. Active learning tools are designed to meet the needs of students with a range of Page 14.75.5learning styles. Particular approaches to teaching often favor a certain learning preference.Therefore it is important to incorporate a variety

Conference Session

Design Projects in Mechanical Engineering I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Tony Jones, United States Army; Daisie Boettner, United States Military Academy; Joel Dillon, United States Military Academy; Stephanie Ivey; Anna Lambert, University of Memphis; Brian Novoselich, United States Military Academy; Stephen Suhr, United States Military Academy

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

, studies of Organizational Leadership assert that each student in a design teambrings varying degrees of both content knowledge and communication strategies, and aninstructor’s understanding of these characteristics is essential to modeling and promotingeffective teams. Our study integrates theories of Organizational Leadership, EngineeringEducation, and Educational Psychology to investigate our students’ perceptions, attributions, andlessons learned in relation to team experiences.The methodological approach of this study was designed to elicit team members’ perceptions ofshared team experiences through a mixed-method research approach. Primary data for this studywas obtained from a Reflective Essay assignment, submitted by all Capstone Design

Conference Session

Design Projects in Mechanical Engineering I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Tony Jones, United States Army; Daisie Boettner, United States Military Academy; Anna Lambert, University of Memphis; Brian Novoselich, United States Military Academy; Stephanie Ivey

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

research approach. External assessment datacollected via (1) informal e-mail exchanges between the researcher and each team member; (2)direct observation of team members during the design phase followed by direct interviews withindividual team members for additional clarification; (3) a brief questionnaire completed by eachteam member immediately following completion of a project milestone; (4) individual video-taped reflective narratives recorded 2-3 days following the project presentation. The researchwas conducted with a cohort of students from the United States Military Academy’s MechanicalEngineering Department.The data was collected at three specific time points. The Introduction point occurred in January2008 as the class began. It happened

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Freddie Davis, West Texas A&M University; Emily Hunt, West Texas A&M University; Kendra Campbell, West Texas A&M University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

beenconducted to determine the effectiveness of this program. The evaluation consists of studentsurveys, focus groups, and individual student and instructor interviews. This evaluation providesboth qualitative and quantitative analysis of the impact of the learning community onundergraduate students. Quantitative results from the evaluation show that all students arebenefiting (i.e. retention rate, GPA, etc.) from participation in the first-year experience program,regardless of major. Interestingly, qualitative results show students are identifying the benefitsof the first-year program on their academic success except for those enrolled in the engineeringprogram. Student interviews with engineering students reflect a perceived negative impact on

Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering Poster Session

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kathy Schmidt, University of Texas, Austin; Juan Garcia, University of Texas, Austin; Michael Webber, University of Texas, Austin

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

interactions, reflection andto facilitate between class communications. According to Winer, “a Web log is a hierarchy oftext, images, media objects, and data, arranged chronologically, that can be viewed in an HTMLbrowser.” 6 Blogs are easy to construct for all that is needed is a Web browser and an Internetpublishing service. Given their ease of use and their proliferation, they are used frequently in alllevels of education. The pedagogical paradigm that supports the use of blogs in educationalsettings is Vygotsky's educational theory that states children learn from social interaction.7College students, however, also bring lived experiences to their learning. The use of a blog thatprovided as images, multimedia, audio, and text is a good way for

Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering Poster Session

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Yaomin Dong, Kettering University; Jacqueline El-Sayed, Kettering University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

advantages of team teaching include: Courses can reflect real-life engineering challenges. Courses can be interdisciplinary by engaging professors with unique expertise. Students are able to see the professors interact in the classroom. Such an interaction constantly leads to new insights about the disciplines involved because each professor models the behavior of an individual from his discipline. During the problem solving process, it is beneficial for students to see the professors as learners as well as teachers, and demonstrate that learning is a lifelong endeavor. The level of classroom discussion and interaction is improved. This interaction is beneficial for students who might have

Conference Session

Improving Mechanics & Structural Modeling Courses

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Pramod Chaphalkar, Grand Valley State University; Shirley Fleischmann, Grand Valley State University; Janice Pawloski, Grand Valley State University; Hugh Jack, Grand Valley State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

University is surrounded by several autosuppliers and furniture manufacturers. Over the years, our engineering school has developed astrong partnership with the local industry. Co-op is mandatory in our undergraduate program andwe provide well trained co-op students to the industry. All of our capstone projects are sponsoredby the local industry. It is therefore imperative that we strive to keep our curricula up to date, sothat they reflect local industry’s needs and our students remain competent in the fast changingenvironment of technology and businesses. Our engineering program emphasizes teaching andapplied research. Therefore, our faculty is continuously engaged in pedagogical research and itsimplementation and it is active in disseminating the

Conference Session

Design Projects in Mechanical Engineering II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Emilia Bratschitsch, Joanneum University of Applied Sciences; Adrian Millward-Sadler, Joanneum University of Applied Sciences

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

university currently is developing a new system for curricula re-design. -6-proud of their work and themselves. Sometimes we are given the impression that some ofthem have already forgotten they are still students.In their presentations, the seniors also tell us about their personal impressions: on the onehand these touch on the working conditions, the quality of supervision, the infrastructure, theopportunities of learning more about other disciplines or departments, staff mobility, etc. Onthe other hand, they provide us with their reflections on our degree program, with regard topersonal knowledge and skills. During these presentations we

Conference Session

Design Projects in Mechanical Engineering I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sophoria Westmoreland, University of Maryland; Ashley Grenier, University of Maryland; Linda Schmidt, University of Maryland

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

studentssketch during design, even when they are taught to do so.Robertson et al.[14] studied the impact of CAD use on creativity as self-reported by 200professionals and identified four relevant phenomena. The first is an increased ability tocommunicate concepts and create shared visual understanding via the CAD model. Theremaining phenomena are less positive: circumscribed (or limited) thinking; premature solutionfixation, and bounded ideation. The Robertson work included a small focus group of recentgraduates leading them to reflect on CAD usage in education vs. in industry. Along with thepositive benefits of CAD skills (e.g. improved communication, ability to use current tools);negative effects included an unrealistic belief in the accuracy of CAD

Conference Session

Outstanding Contributions to Mechanical Engineering Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dianne Pawluk, Virginia Commonwealth University; Curtis Taylor, University of Florida; Marcia Hoffman, Virginia Commonwealth University; Maria McClintock, Virginia Commonwealth University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

enable understanding of the effects of individual types of forces. Figure 3. Diagram of an atomic force 2.2 Physics of AFM Imaging and Force microscope system that uses the Spectroscopy ‘optical lever’ approach to detect cantilever deflection. A laser is used to The concept and physics upon which AFM is reflect light off of the back of the based is relatively simple. Essentially, a tiny cantilever that is in contact with the probe in the form of a microscale cantilever beam surface. (typically 100-200 um long, 20-30 um wide, and1-3 um thick), with a sharp tip (radius < 10 nm) located at its distal end, is used to

Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering Poster Session

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Enrique Barbieri, University of Houston; Raresh Pascali, University of Houston; Miguel Ramos, University of Houston; William Fitzgibbon, University of Houston

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

middle of the 20th Centurydesigned to emphasize theoretical content reflecting a postwar embrace of science byengineering programs. A glaring exception is perhaps Olin College, which opened in fall 2002to an inaugural freshman class www.olin.edu/about_olin/olin_history.asp after creating andtesting “an innovative curriculum that infused a rigorous engineering education with businessand entrepreneurship as well as the arts, humanities and social sciences. They developed a hands-on, interdisciplinary approach that better reflects actual engineering practice.”Many feel that the transition from engineering applications to fundamental engineering sciencehas been unfortunate and that experiential learning should form the backbone of engineering

Conference Session

Thermodynamics, Fluids, and Heat Transfer I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kathryn Marlor, Michigan Technological University; Gretchen Hein, Michigan Technological University; Nathan Manser, Michigan Technological University; Brett Hamlin, Michigan Technological University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

to the crib sheet in between test periods.The following tables illustrate the overall exam performance by the students, wherein fall 2008scores reflect the longer examination period. In addition to the two-day exam period, studentswere given the opportunity to earn redemption points through the completion of an on-lineassessment. The details of the assessment will be discussed later in the paper. It should be notedthat the data in Tables 2 and 3 are raw figures without any type of redemption or assessmentpoints added to the score. This was done to examine the effect of the longer exam time. Table 2: Thermodynamics Exam Performance without Resurrection Points Semester Exam 1: Thermo Exam 2: Thermo

Conference Session

Statics and Dynamics: What's New

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Roman Taraban, Texas Tech; Edward Anderson, Texas Tech; Curtis Craig, Texas Tech

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

opened to the problems at the end of the chapter: In this study, you will be asked to solve two statics problems from this chapter in your textbook. Take a moment to page through the chapter to confirm that you have Page 14.982.7 covered this material. Each problem will be presented on a sheet of paper. Extra paper is available if you need it. Solve the problem as you normally would. But try to neatly show your work. As you are solving these problems, say out loud what you are thinking. The more thoughts you verbalize, the better. Whatever you say should simply reflect what is going through your mind while solving the problem. If

Conference Session

Student Learning and Assessment

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Anne-Marie Lerner, University of Wisconsin, Platteville

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

total error ratio reflects this difficultyin concept mastery. For an instructor, the total fraction error is a useful tool to confirm Page 14.582.5qualitative observations about the course after it has been completed, and can then be used toplan how future offerings would be taught.While the error ratio can be used to examine overall errors, it can also be used as assessmentmethodology tools. The first method involves tracking specific intermediate errors that shoulddecrease over the semester, regardless of content. This method will be referred to as “CommonErrors Tracking”. The second method involves tracking specific knowledge gaps over time

Conference Session

Design Projects in Mechanical Engineering II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Matthias Lang, University of Texas, Austin; Dinesh Rabindran, University of Texas, Austin; Tricia Berry, University of Texas, Austin

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

possibility of them attending graduate school. Their work reflects the themeof the importance of undergraduate research that will be addressed in this paper as well.According to the pre-survey and post-survey of GLUE completed by the participant, it was Page 14.609.3shown that the participant gained valuable experience and progressed throughout the semester.The set of criteria established by Rabindran and Berry3 includes mentorship, contribution,adequacy, and technical communication. Based on these criteria, the GLUE program fulfills 75%of the requirements to successfully promote undergraduate research.Research Project Description DC Motor

Conference Session

Improving Mechanics & Structural Modeling Courses

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Arnaldo Mazzei, Kettering University; Richard Scott, University of Michigan

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

Optimal when no furtherPareto improvement can be made. This is the sense of “optimum” used here.The actual computation of the optimum is another, separate, issue. A common approach is tominimize the scalar (“weighted sum method”): f ? ν1 f1 − ν2 f 2 (4) Page 14.811.4where ν1 , ν2 are so-called “weight functions”, essentially reflecting user design preferences (“isweight more important than stress?”). Rather than work with equation ( 4 ) a normalized versionis introduced, following Kim and deWech 5 (see

Conference Session

Thermodynamics, Fluids, and Heat Transfer II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michael Maixner, United States Air Force Academy; James Baughn, UC Davis

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

strictly as a classroom demo.ACKNOLEDGEMENTSpecial thanks are due Mr. Rob Lotz, technician in the Department of Engineering Mechanics at USAFA,for his superior craftsmanship, expertise, and common sense in the fabrication of this laboratoryapparatus.DISCLAIMERThe views expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the U.S.Air Force, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.NOMENCLATURE Symbol Meaning A Area (m2) D Diameter (m) h Average convective heat transfer coefficient (W/m2·K) k Thermal conductivity (W/m·K) L Fin length (m

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Willis, Southern Methodist University; Paul Krueger, Southern Methodist University; Alice Kendrick, Southern Methodist University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

adequate experience in working with specialized engineering 1 4 equipment. I feel I have adequate knowledge of engineering theory. 4 3 I feel I have adequate experience with the proper methods of making 5 5 engineering measurements I feel I understand the relationship between engineering measurement and 0 3 engineering design and theory. I feel that as the result of the REU program, I now have considerable __ 6 „hands-on‟ experience in engineering.****A five-point scale from Strongly Agree (5) to Strongly Disagree (1) was used. This table reflects the number whochecked a 5 or 4

Conference Session

Thermodynamics, Fluids, and Heat Transfer I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

B. Terry Beck, Kansas State University; Bill Whitson, Kansas State University; Greg Payne, Kansas State University; Trevor Heitman, Kansas State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

, precautions were taken to minimize stray laser reflections. The wing test modelwas painted flat black opaque for this reason. Figure 6 shows a photograph of the overallexperimental setup, including the image acquisition setup. A generic camcorder with tripodmount was used to capture both video and single frame images of the streamline flow. Thecamcorder was positioned about 10 ft (3 m) from the image plane to minimize parallax effects Page 14.208.8and to also provide large depth of field to keep everything in focus. It should be noted that thecamcorder is shown somewhat closer in the above Figure. The positioning traverse for the top-mounted

Conference Session

Outstanding Contributions to Mechanical Engineering Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sivakumar Krishnan, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis; M. Razi Nalim, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

159 69.8 (11.6) 64.9 (18.6) 58.6 (21.5)The table above indicates only a marginal difference in performance between the differentgroups while there is some weak evidence that the first group (Project-enhanced Course)performed better in the first and final exams. This is explained as follows: The total score in thefollow-on course is a reflection of the many heat-transfer topics covered, which may or may nothave a related concept that was taught in the pre-requisite introductory thermodynamics course.For example, the project covered the concept of energy balance introduced through the first lawin thermodynamics and its application in the context of conduction heat loss through the walls aswell as heat addition through solar

Conference Session

Thermodynamics, Fluids, and Heat Transfer I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kenny Mahan, University of Alabama; Jesse Huguet, University of Alabama; Joseph Chappell, University of Alabama; Keith Woodbury, University of Alabama; Robert Taylor, University of Alabama

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

can be downloaded at the project website Page 14.600.20www.me.ua.edu/ExcelinME.Acknowledgement This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DUE-0633330. The authors gratefully acknowledge support from this NSF award.DisclaimerAny opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are thoseof the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.ReferencesASHRAE, (2005), Handbook of Fundamentals, http://www.ashrae.org/Chappell, J., Taylor, R. P., and Woodbury, K. A. (2008) “Introducing Excel-based Steam

Conference Session

Thermodynamics, Fluids, and Heat Transfer II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gerald Recktenwald, Portland State University; Robert Edwards, Pennsylvania State University, Erie; Douglas Howe, Portland State University; Jenna Faulkner, Portland State University; Calvin Hsieh, Portland State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

Project. Page 14.1215.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2009 The Engineering of Everyday Things: Simple Experiments for the Thermal and Fluid SciencesAbstractA series of demonstrations and laboratory exercises have been developed to teach fundamentalconcepts in the thermal and fluid sciences of the undergraduate engineering curriculum. Thismaterial is part of an educational research project called the Engineering of Everyday Things.The title reflects the use of common technology like hair dryers, blenders, toasters and bicyclepumps, which are used to demonstrate principles of thermodynamics

Conference Session

Thermodynamics, Fluids, and Heat Transfer II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Subrata Bhattacharjee, San Diego State University; Christopher Paolini, San Diego State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

same way as the non-premixed daemons. The differencecomes from the fact that the Reaction Panel now has only two blocks – one for reactants and one Figure 11. The Process Panel set up for calculating the adiabatic temperature in a closed chamber.for products. Therefore the State Panel and the Device Panel are also modified to reflect a singleinlet and a single exit for the premixed reactor. Balancing a reaction requires selecting thereactants and products and entering amounts of (n − a) components, where n is the total numberof species that appear in the reaction and a is the number of atoms. For the theoreticalcombustion of methane, the reaction can be balanced by entering 1 kg of methane and 17.201 kgof air as reactants, selecting the